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WPP’s Kantar Health acquires consulting company in Czech Republic
MUMBAI: WPP’s Kantar Health has acquired CEEOR, a specialist research and consulting company in the Czech Republic.
Founded in 2006 and based in Prague, with offices in Slovakia and Hungary, CEEOR is a research and consulting organisation specialising in analytical services for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and healthcare industries in Europe and beyond. It has a market-leading reputation as a customer-oriented and technology-focused market intelligence provider. CEEOR’s core business is centered on commercial effectiveness activities, electronic data collection, and real-world research studies, including epidemiology and health outcomes.
Through this acquisition, Kantar Health will further strengthen its capabilities in the commercial effectiveness field, helping clients to better optimise decisions in marketing and sales, investments, timing and targeting.
CEEOR’s consolidated revenues for the year ended 31 December, 2014 were €1.6 million, with gross assets of €0.7 million as at the same date.
In Central and Eastern Europe the Group (including associates) generates revenues of almost $600 million and employs over 6,000 people. In the Czech Republic, the Group (including associates) generates revenues of almost $100 million and employs around 1,000 people.
Kantar generates revenues of almost $5 billion (including associates) and employs over 34,000 people.
MAM
Smytten appoints Shishir Varma as CEO of Pulseai Research
Rebranded AI platform scales with 150 plus clients and 30 million users.
MUMBAI: In a world obsessed with what consumers say, Smytten is betting on what they actually do. The company has appointed Shishir Varma as chief executive officer of Pulseai Research, signalling a sharper push into AI-led, behaviour-driven consumer insights. The move comes as Smytten rebrands its insights vertical from Smytten PulseAI to Pulseai Research, marking a shift away from traditional, project-based research towards a more continuous, intelligence-led model.
Varma brings over 30 years of global experience across APAC markets, including India, China and Japan. Most recently managing director, Insights at Kantar Japan, he has built and scaled consumer insight businesses across geographies, including playing a key role in establishing Millward Brown in India. His mandate now: turn Pulseai into a category-defining platform in a space still dominated by surveys and static reports.
The pitch is straightforward but ambitious. Instead of relying on claimed responses, Pulseai Research taps into observed behaviour leveraging Smytten’s ecosystem of 30 million users built over a decade of product discovery, trials and purchases. The idea is to close the long-standing gap between what consumers claim and how they actually behave.
The numbers suggest early traction. In under 18 months, the platform has onboarded over 150 enterprise clients across sectors, pointing to growing demand for faster, more reliable alternatives to legacy research models.
Under the hood, the platform blends behavioural data with AI and large language model-led analysis to deliver real-time sentiment tracking, scalable qualitative insights, faster quantitative studies and always-on brand intelligence. In practical terms, that means compressing research timelines from weeks to days without sacrificing depth.
The ambition extends beyond FMCG. Pulseai Research is positioning itself as a cross-category intelligence layer, spanning auto, education, gadgets and emerging consumer segments anywhere behaviour-rich data can sharpen decision-making.
For Smytten, the leadership hire is less about optics and more about direction. With Varma at the helm, the company is leaning into a simple but powerful premise: in the age of AI, insight isn’t just about asking better questions, it’s about watching more closely.
